"Poor firewood, rich water tank", can firewood and water tank show the wealth and poverty of a family? In the old countryside, some places did regard firewood and water tanks as a standard for the rich and poor of the family, but in other places, there were different sayings, firewood was regarded as fire prevention, and water tanks were regarded as fire prevention tools.
In the old days, some rural sayings often contained multiple meanings, and the rural saying "poor firewood, rich water tank" is this type. In the countryside in the past, the first half and the second half of this saying often said one thing, which was closely linked and difficult to separate. Different regions have different resources, geography, and climate, and people give different explanations. In the countryside in the past, there were two main interpretations of this saying.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" >1, through firewood and water tanks, you can see the rich and poor of a family</h1>
Some rural areas say "poor firewood"
In the past, in the countryside, whether it was poor or rich, they were cooking and eating with firewood, and without firewood, a family could not survive. The rural custom of saying that a certain family "cut off fireworks" means that the family cannot open the pot and has run out of grain, and saying that a certain family has "stopped fireworks" means that the family has no offspring, and this statement has also become the words of some rural curses. In the past, when there was no gas and electric cooking, firewood was an indispensable means of life for a family to eat three meals a day.
Poor firewood does not mean that the firewood itself is poor, but that firewood is scarce in these places. Because of the lack of firewood, firewood in these places is also very valuable. In the old days, some rural people specialized in selling firewood for a living. These people go to the more remote mountains to cut firewood, and then pick up firewood in the market and some large households to sell.
In these firewood-scarce areas, every household has to cook with firewood, but people with different economic conditions burn different firewood. It was like wearing clothes, in the old days, the rich people in the family wore silk satin, at least neatly dressed, without patches, and very comfortable to wear on the body. The poor people in the family wear clothes made of burlap, the countryside is called home weaving, and the urban people are called earthen cloth, thick and thick, wearing on the body is more uncomfortable, worn for a long time and full of patches.
In the old days, in these villages, wealthy families bought firewood for cooking or roasting. And poor people, even if there is good firewood at home, they are reluctant to burn it, but it is used to exchange money or exchange for food, and what they burn in their own homes is generally straw and thatch, and if they can have thatched firewood, it is good firewood.
Therefore, in some rural areas in the old days, by looking at the firewood burned in the kitchen of the home, it is possible to see whether the family is poor or rich.
Some rural "water-rich tanks" are said
Water, like firewood and food, is an indispensable thing in people's lives and a necessary basic substance for people's survival. In the old days, there was no running water in the countryside, and whether it was water for cooking or other uses, it was necessary to go to wells or streams and rivers to pick up. After picking it up, you have to have a water storage appliance. This kind of appliance is called a water tank.
The water tank was called an urn in ancient times, and the idiom catching turtle in the urn refers to catching turtles in the water tank, which is a very easy task. There is also an idiom, urn sound urn, also refers to people speaking in the water tank, because the sound is in a relatively closed space, so the voice is also thick and low.
In the old days, there were many types of water tanks in the countryside, and the water tanks could be divided into high, medium and low grades according to the different materials. High-grade water cylinders are cast in iron, generally cast for pig iron, called molten iron tanks, or iron cylinders. Because the iron cylinder has three legs to support, cast into a Lux lift, or a powerful soldier face pattern, like the ancient casting of the Ding, therefore, some rural areas are also called Iron Ding, or Iron Ding Cylinder. The outer body of the iron water tank is decorated with various auspicious patterns such as flowers, plants, birds and finches. The middle water tank is a porcelain cylinder burned out of mud, also known as a tile cylinder. The low-grade water tank is a large wooden barrel, which is called "king barrel" in some rural areas. At that time, in the countryside, the richer families used iron tanks, the tile cylinders used by ordinary people, and the wooden barrels used by poor people.
In this way, when you go to a family's home, you only need to look at what kind of water tank their family uses, and you can judge what kind of economic situation the family is in. Families with iron cylinders, the family is naturally well-off, the use of large wooden barrels as water tanks for water, or even large wooden barrels do not have a family, can only be described by the four walls of the family.
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In the past, in some mountainous villages, the mountains were rich in firewood, and if these places wanted to judge the economic situation of the family from the firewood, they could not see it in any way, whether it was a rich family or a poor family, the firewood burned was the same, there was no difference. There is a saying in the mountainous areas of Hunan that goes like this: "There is no sip (sigh, that is, eat), burn the stove fire armor (a, that is, roast)", which means that even if the family is poor, the family cannot be without firewood. In fact, this is also the hospitality of mountain people, the winter weather is cold, if there are guests coming to the door, first make a fire for the guests to roast, and then serve tea to the guests.
In fact, there are similar customs in the north. In the winter of the late 1980s, my friend and I visited a farmhouse in Luoyang, Henan Province, and as soon as we entered their door, the host very politely took out a specially collected sesame stalk and roasted it for us. In the countryside of that era, this was a manifestation of the local hospitality, because the local firewood was scarce, cooking and burning bituminous coal, or straw. The sesame stalk ignites quickly, and the firepower of the burning is enough, and it is easy to warm up.
In the old days, the older villages had special people to beat the guns, and the beaters shouted while banging on the bamboo poles: "Fire prevention and theft, be careful of the candles." Traditional houses, some are brick and wood mixed structures, some covered with mud thatch, some are wooden structures, in winter, whether it is the south or the north, the weather is dry and dry, easy to cause house fires. As the saying goes, "fire does not burn empty warehouses", which means that the period after the autumn harvest is the most likely time for fires to occur in the countryside.
In the countryside of the old era, once a fire broke out in a farmhouse, the home burned to the ground, and there was nothing in the days to come, and it was impossible to live. Therefore, in the past, rural areas attached great importance to fire prevention and accumulated a lot of experience in daily life. For example, for the southern countryside, a village is generally excavated a certain number of ponds, and the water is filled, and its main function is to prevent fires and facilitate water when extinguishing fires. In the traditional residential buildings, people also pay great attention to the fire prevention function, after the Ming and Qing Dynasties brick and wood mixed structure buildings, most of them have fire walls, once a fire occurs in a household, you can cut off the fire, so that the fire will not spread in the village, to burn a household, will not affect the neighbor's house.
For individual household fire prevention, people have also accumulated a wealth of experience, that is, to separate the source of fire from flammables, but also to prepare water for fire extinguishing.
"Poor firewood, rich water tank", from the perspective of family fire prevention, means to pile firewood in front of the stove in the kitchen as little as possible, how much to burn, and the less firewood is put, the safer it is. The word "poor" in "poor firewood" means "less" or no; the water tank at home is usually filled with water, and once a fire alarm occurs, it can be extinguished with water. The word "rich" in "rich tank" means "full" and "sufficient".
Why is there such a saying in the countryside? Here is the historical background of the emergence of the old saying.
There was a period of time in Our country that folk called matches "foreign fire", that is to say, the technology of match making was imported from foreign countries, and in modern history and the Republic of China period, there are many things that are imported from foreign countries, all with a "foreign" word, such as kerosene called "foreign oil", enamel bowl called "foreign bowl", enamel pot called "ocean pot", and so on.
Before the use of matches was introduced to Our country, the main use of fire scythes for civil fire in China was used to make fires. Fire sickle lighting is relatively troublesome, and if there is no flammable ignition material, it takes a long time. Go to the neighbor's house to borrow fire seeds, many rural customs in our country, taboo other people's homes to borrow fire, especially in the early morning to borrow fire at the door of others. Therefore, most rural families in the old days had the habit of preserving tinder. That is to say, after the meal is done, there is no need to use fire, and the fire in the stove or the fire pit is covered with fire ash, commonly known as "sealing the fire". This is the same principle as the later coal-fired sealing furnace. The fire that seals the ashes can not be extinguished for a long time, or the fire will not turn into ashes. When you need to cook again, pull out the fire, put some matching, and soon the fire will be started. In the past, rural areas used to call this kind of stove and fire pond for storing fire seeds as hot stove and hot fire pond.
In this way, the problem comes, the sealed fire is still burning, but it is very slow, if the technique of sealing the fire is not good, it will either be extinguished, or a little longer, the fire will be exposed. If firewood is piled up by the stove house and the fire pond, especially some flammable firewood, such as straw, thatch, dead branches and leaves, etc., under the baking of the fire, the ignition point is reached, it will burn up, so it is prone to fire.
In the past, there was a legend in the countryside that when the rats were quiet in the middle of the night, they had nothing to do after eating, they would go to the stove and the fire pond to frolic, and some rats would stick their tails out to the stove and the fire pit to play, which was also the main reason for the fire in the farmhouse. This claim, though too esoteric, is not credible. However, the activity of rats in the kitchen, the possibility of causing a fire does exist. Generally speaking, the kitchen is the most frequent place for rats to move, if the kitchen is stacked with too much firewood, close to the stove and the fire, the rat likes to drill into the firewood, they jump up and down, it is easy to put the lighter and flammable grass and leaves, to the stove and the fire pit, thereby igniting the firewood, causing a fire.
During the day, the chickens in the house can also cause fires. The kitchen is the chicken's favorite place to forage, and when the chicken forages, it likes to use both legs to stir the grass and leaves hard, in the wild, in the kitchen. In this way, if there is too much firewood and grass in the kitchen, the chicken will also use two paws to pull the firewood into the stove and the fire pit, ignite the firewood, and cause a fire.
That is why, in the past, when the countryside was burning firewood, the stove house could not put too much firewood and grass, preferring to move the firewood outside a few times, rather than accumulating firewood in the stove room and using how much to take. Generally speaking, after cooking at home, it is necessary to clean the front of the stove door, sort out the flammable firewood, or move the firewood out of the stove room, or keep the firewood away from the stove and the fire. Some of the more careful people often sprinkle some water in front of the stove door or around the fire pond before going to bed, which is also an important means of fire prevention in the past.
This is the true meaning of the saying "poor firewood". In fact, many rural areas with a shortage of firewood also have this saying, which shows the importance of rural fire prevention in the past.
"Water-rich tank" is to keep the water tank is often full, and after the water tank is used, it is not empty to see the bottom, and it will be full immediately. Especially at night, in general, rural households should keep the water tank full. For fire prevention, water fire extinguishing in rural areas is the most effective.
In the past, rural fire prevention has also accumulated a lot of experience. For example, in the past, in the countryside, two-house wooden houses or brick and wood mixed structure houses generally put several earthen jars on the second floor, and the altar jars were filled with water. Rural folklore says that the water in the altar jar should be used to suppress the "fire god", or the fire "disaster star" should be suppressed, so that there will be no fire in the home. In fact, people's approach is not so simple. This traditional practice in rural areas is an emergency preventive measure for fire fighting. This practice is like some unit fire prevention now, some key parts of fire prevention, the wall must be hung fire extinguishers, the number is not small, in the event of a fire, take it down at will, you can use it, control the fire at the fastest speed. In the old days, there were no fire extinguishers, the kitchen had water tanks for water, and there were altars and tanks of water on the upper floors, which were simple fire extinguishers in the countryside in the past, and also traditional fire extinguishers, ancient courts, warehouses, and officials were placed with fireproof buckets and water tanks, and they were filled with water at times.
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The saying "poor firewood, rich water tank", in addition to the above two statements, there are other sayings in the countryside, but most of them have some superstitious overtones and are not credible, so they are not introduced here.
Of the two statements above, I think that fire protection is the most reliable and practical. Family fire, from ancient times to the present, for a family, whether it is the safety of life, or the safety of property, the harm is very large, the consequences are very serious, in the countryside, the fire caused by firewood, it means the poverty of the family, therefore, fire prevention has always been valued by rural people.
In today's rural areas, the saying "poor firewood, rich water tank" has become history. People's housing has improved, the building materials used are no longer wooden houses, brick and wood mixed structure houses, in addition to those who still live in traditional houses, many people have built new houses, using brick and reinforced concrete materials. In daily life, firewood is also burned, using electrical appliances and gas, which is not as easy to fire as in the past, and now the incidence of fire in rural households is greatly reduced.
Even so, after rural families live in reinforced concrete houses, there are still a small number of families, for various reasons, reduced the awareness of safety precautions, paralyzed, and fires occur every year. Therefore, the phrase "poor firewood, rich water tank" is outdated, but this fire safety awareness in the countryside in the past is not outdated, and it is still worth learning from our current people.